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Senator McCain: “Rodman is an idiot”

January 9, 2014
The U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, on right, criticized the former NBA player Dennis Rodman's moves in North Korea during his CNN interview on Tuesday. / Courtesy of CNN Tuesday. / Courtesy of CNN

The U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, on right, criticized the former NBA player Dennis Rodman’s moves in North Korea during his CNN interview on Tuesday. / Courtesy of CNN Tuesday. / Courtesy of CNN

By Ko Dong-hwan

The U.S. Republican Senator John McCain called Dennis Rodman an “idiot.”

The former National Basketball Association’s ‘Bad Boy’ is currently visiting North Korea to realize his friendly basketball match, and in his two minute-long interview with Pierce Morgan on Cable News Network (CNN)’s “Pierce Morgan Live” Tuesday, McCain didn’t hold back.

“I think he’s an idiot,” started off the Arizona Senator in the interview. “I think he’s very a person of not great intellect, who doesn’t understand that he really does provide propaganda for this very brutal, ruthless young man (Kim Jong-un).”

McCain’s criticism on Rodman was also directed at his sidling with the regime for detaining Kenneth Bae, the Korea-born American citizen being imprisoned in the country without any officially confirmed charges.

The notion received highlights as expressed by the former NBA player on his earlier Tuesday morning interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “In one respect, it’s kind of a side show with a guy who’s not too bright, that’s looking for something to do. That kind of part of it can even amuse us. But when we’re talking about an American that’s being held prisoner in God knows what conditions, and he is basically defending it, that’s pretty bad behavior.”

Rodman later apologized for his outburst, but even sang “Happy Birthday to you” to the North Korean leader.